Monday, April 20, 2009

Sunday Wrap Up

So walking into the last day of Coachella is like waking up on your last day of camp. You're sad. Really really sad and you're determined to have as much fun as possible.

We checked out at 10 and headed over to the site early. We had a long day planned

Super Mayer
No Age
Friendly Fires
Okkervil River
The Gaslight Anthem
Sebastian Tellier
Lupe Fiasco
Lykke Li
Peter Bjorn and John
Anthony and the Johnstons
Perry Farrel
Plump DJs
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Horrors
Christopher Lawrence
Grove Armada and
THE CURE!!!

Once again we started the day off in the techno tent to amp up and because, well, that's naturally the first place Lauren and I gravitate to.

We saw 17 bands so I'll just give you the highlights.

Friendly Fires was much anticipated and for good reason. It was a 2:00 set and the whole tent was full on a 100 degree day. Why aren't they playing one of the bigger stages? I don't know. We were in the overflow but the happy energy got all the way to us in the back. Yay for cute sassy European boys with bands.

Lupe Fiasco provided some much needed hip hop representation and they delivered. See - this is the awesome thing about Coachella. You're in this giant field with 40K other people who love music, are just as hot as you, paid just as much money and well - you kind of stop caring about stuff, so if you hear music you like, no matter where you are or what you're doing, if you start dancing it's cool. If you just want to park it in the middle of a something you just pull up some grass. Everyone was just chill and fantastic and there was space to just be yourself. So while we were just kicking it on the soft polo grass with our shoes off grooving to Lupe there was this hilarious dude in front of us just dancing and dancing and it wasn't weird. I love it.

Lykki Li was amazing. What a show. That girl has so much freaking energy. What would we do without crazy Swedes? Seriously. She migrated over to the main stage to sing with Peter Bjorn and John for Young Folks (got that on video :D) too. It was a Swedish invasion.

Peter was chill and amazing.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are fun. Just plain fun. It's impossible not to have fun because they are having so much fun. They were on the main stage and they deserved it.

Christopher Lawrence and Grove Armada are juggernauts in the techno end of the world so we shook our groove thang for an hour or so and then frolicked over, a bit sadly for our last stop at Coachella for a whole year.

The Cure.

\There are not words for all the emotion that went into little old me sitting cross-legged behind a few thousand people listening to one of my favorite bands of all time. The Cure is one of those staples of my adolescence. They were this unassuming group that made all the difference to me. I will probably never see them again in my life time but this show was all I needed.

They were such a contrast to The Killers the night before. The Killers have this HUGE light and graphics show and its this whole visual experience as well as a musical one. Everyone is dressed in their rock version of tuxedos true to their Las Vegas roots. The Cure just took the stage. No fancy lights, no insane costumes, nothing like that. It was mesmerizing. Robert looked like he spent the night in a tree (as usual) and was in jeans and a hoodie comfortably taking in thousands of people with his guitar and the music. I've never experienced anything like it.

I cried as I walked out and swore that I'd be back and I will.

Totals:
# of Bands seen: 29
# of hours slept: 12
# of times getting pulled over by a cop for a broken tail light smelling like, well, Coachella: 1
# of tickets received: 0
# of Redbulls drank: 0
# of times contemplating a Redbull: 234
# of people I wished would put some more clothes on: 38,908
# of hot guys I didn't mind so much being disrobed: 4446
# of times I cried at the beauty of what I was hearing or the gravity of it all: 15
# of dreams come true: 4
# of funnel cakes consumed: 1
# of random friends I ran into: 1
# of times I thought that there are too many people in the world who weren't hugged enough as children: 289
# of babies with airport ear covers on: 2
# of porter potty/trailer hook ups secured: 1
# of times getting misted down in the Dolab: 3
# of times I dug my bare toes into the grass thinking this was heaven: 23
# of blackberries rescued: 1
# of hugs from strangers: 3
# of sundresses I wished I had the good sense to have worn: 1,287
# of times I fell in love with Brandon Flowers: 8
# of times I fell in love with music all over again: 23,833

Viva Coachella!
Who is in for 2010?

2 comments:

Liz the Poet said...

2010?

ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please don't let me forget that this exists and then miss it!!!!!!

Tracy said...

Oh! me-me-me!!! Over here... me! I wanna go!